What’s surprising about this number, aside from the obvious,
is that the album made what it did while being freely and legally available in its full form (more on that in a bit)
on the pirate underground. Nobody other than Nine Inch Nails planted the first
seed: personally acknowledging that the “free trial” 8-track sample version of
the album would be listed side-by-side with the 36-track pirate version, Reznor
kindly asked users to buy the CD on the official web site, resorting to no threats
and no drama.

But you know what? The full 36-track pirate version of Ghosts
I-IV – the version that Reznor kindly
asks you to buy from the website instead of download – is perfectly legal. Why?

Creative Commons,
baby. The copyright alternative! Page
39 of Ghosts’ liner notes states that
the album is licensed under a Creative Commons “Attribution-Noncommercial-Share
Alike” license, which unlike a normal, all rights reserved copyright
arrangement, grants the listener some-rights-reserved privileges, including the
ability to remix and distribute the album at no consequence. There are
limitations, of course: the “Attribution” part means that licensees can’t pass
the album off as their own, and the “share alike” forces any derivative works to
be distributed with similar terms – but free is free!

Now, I know that effectively licensing the album for free
was probably not Nine Inch Nails’ intention; rather, it is more likely that
Reznor chose a Creative Commons license to facilitate
remixing, which was previously used to great effect for Year Zero. Regardless, choosing to license
via Creative Commons is an incredibly noble move on behalf of Nine Inch Nails,
and an incredible victory for the Creative Commons movement – because outside
of the occasional featurette in Wired,
Creative Commons seems to be all but sidelined when it comes to mainstream
visibility.

Unfortunately, Nine Inch Nails may be one of the few that are currently able to pull a move like Ghosts
off. Most other bands of Reznor’s clout seem to be indifferent to progressive copyrights
and distribution – a select few choose
outright hostility
– and most bands willing to mimic Nine Inch Nails’ model don’t have a large
enough fan base to fall back on. Even Radiohead, which by itself is something
of a force to be reckoned with, had mixed
success after venturing into free. Creative Commons is still something of a
catch-22 for most folks; however, much like anything new, now that we’ve seen a
good success story we’ll likely see other artists follow suit.

Personally, I purchased the $10 version of Ghosts, opting
for FLAC downloads and a copy of the CD, whenever it arrives. I’ll admit, I’m
not the biggest Nine Inch Nails fan – I can’t stand listening to anything before The
Fragile – but I am pleasantly surprised with Ghosts. If anything, it’s great music to chill out to, and the
album’s gentle, ambient nature means it’s also great music to write to. By all
means, check Ghosts out … after all, it
is free.

"It's okay. The scenarios aren't that clear. But it's good looking. [Steve Jobs] does good design, and [the iPad] is absolutely a good example of that." -- Bill Gates on the Apple iPad